What we know about Ransom Note

[Cottonstar]

Out of curiosity, I looked around for information about the ransom note left in the case of the kidnapping of legendary pilot Charles A. Lindbergh, Jr’s infant son. Spoiler alert: the badly decomposed body was eventually found in the woods near the house.

There were a group of ransom notes, not just the first “nursery note” found in the child’s room. Below this paragraph is a link to photos of them, with trial transcripts in which you can read translations of the otherwise impenetrable handwriting. Interestingly, the nursery note begins “Dear Sir!” complete with exclamation point. Stories about these notes, including photos of them sometimes shown fanned out like playing cards as a group, were published in various places around the 25th anniversary of the kidnapping, though I couldn’t tell you under whose colophon; I just know I saw them. They might be in the book I mention next.

https://www.historictrialtranscripts.com/lindbergh-kidnapping-ransom-notes

Now then, John Ramsey was a pilot with military associations like Lindbergh’s and an apparent interest in books and movies about crime. It’s quite possible he read a book about the Lindbergh kidnapping published in 1993, with distribution delayed for some reason until 1995. It was a best-seller. You can link to it on Amazon here:

https://www.amazon.com/Lindbergh-Crime-Noel-Behn/dp/0871135442

Do you think this exposure might have influenced John at all in either dictating or accepting from his wife a bizarre two-and-a-half-page ransom note? The notes in the Lindbergh case might be the only ones he ever actually saw, after all, even though we often refer to mentions of ransom notes in movies the Ramsey’s probably watched.

In all my study of the Ramsey case, I have never heard anyone make reference to the Lindbergh kidnapping even though strange, rambling ransom notes were involved in it and, as it turned out, the child had been dead all along, not far from its bed — though outdoors, in the Lindbergh baby’s case.

Anything here, or am I just walking what’s left of my wits? (Apologies to Edward Albee)

Charles Lindbergh covered up the death of his son and knew of his fate before calling police to report him missing.

John Ramsey covered up the death of his daughter and knew of her fate before calling police to report her missing.

 

[887sMtreme]

I vaguely remember there being a mention of an Anne Morrow Lindbergh book in DoI.

Oh, that’s interesting. Yes, I can imagine AML’s books might have interested Patsy, especially Gift from the Sea, which was a huge best-seller.

 

[887sMtreme]

DoI, index
Lindbergh kidnapping case • 371, 376
Lindbergh ransom note • 237

doi-l.htm

I never could bring myself to read more than a few quotations from that book. Thank you for this.

 

[887sMtreme]

Charles Lindbergh covered up the death of his son and knew of his fate before calling police to report him missing.

John Ramsey covered up the death of his daughter and knew of her fate before calling police to report her missing.

It has been a long time since I’ve read about the Lindbergh case. Was this ever determined conclusively? He was such an untouchable hero that I doubt people would believe this — but he was a Nazi sympathizer, after all. It isn’t hard for me to believe.

 

[icedtea4me]

DoI, index
Lindbergh kidnapping case • 371, 376
Lindbergh ransom note • 237

doi-l.htm

Thank you.

 

[icedtea4me]

I never could bring myself to read more than a few quotations from that book. Thank you for this.

The DoI is very insightful when you go with the mindset that there are unintentional reveals from their subconscious minds.

 

[887sMtreme]

The DoI is very insightful when you go with the mindset that there are unintentional reveals from their subconscious minds.

That’s the right way to approach it. No way I would enrich a Ramsey by purchasing the book new, though. I might look for it used. Thanks. I’ve seen many posts referencing exactly the kinds of insights you suggest.

 

[k-mac]

Couple thought about the ransom note.

Who would host a kidnapping and describe themselves as A SMALL anything??? Dangerous intimidating word isn't it? scary stuff.

One of two things should have happened for the intruder/ransom/abduction theory to fly and either of them would be appropriate and fitting.

1/. Jonbenet is kidnapped for monetary purposes right? (hence ransom note)
So whether JBR is dead or alive isn't actually the point.....
The ransom note should be still centre stage and going for it AS IT IS LEFT BEHIND APPEARING CENTRE STAGE.......
The intruders would have taken her body dead or alive and carried on with the plan of stealing that very specific amount of money from the Ramseys.
Not presenting JBR alive should have still been a work in progress for the SMALL foreign faction.

2/. JBR is accidently murdered by SMALL foreign faction before getting out....oopsy...plan aborted.
Can anyone truly be expected to think they would not remove the ransom note?
It seriously was not the SMALL foreign factions fault that JBR wasn't discovered immediately in the basement of her own home?
The chances are she could have/should have been found in first search....And therefore game up.
No ransom coming with a dead Jonbenet in the house is there.
Just an incriminating letter that you wrote once you got here that is no longer relevant to your narrative????


Either JBR had to have been removed or the ransom note removed for the SMALL foreign faction to make any relevant sense.
And we all know ...how would the world, most importantly the police know it was a SMALL foreign faction that indeed killed that little child laying down in THEIR basement dead and decomposing without a source??

moo

 

[Pip Stevo]

It really was a work of art. Thesis on deception. It radiated in all direction suspicion for locals, interstate, international entities. How long John worked this out? Patsy would have added a lot of input. 'and hence . . .'

Two attempts. Patsy's feel all over the writing.

They were too proud, material and phoney as people.
Great imagination and sinister construct.

They did their best, and their money kept them free.

 

[photogbill]

Of all the suspicious circumstances and the total incompetence of the police investigation ...the thing that continues to boggle my mind, about this case, is the ransom note ...or I should say "ransom term paper". Why on earth would a stranger/murder/child-molester ...take your pick ...take all that time to write such a lengthy "ransom note" ...on a notepad that was already there in the victim's house ... further risking the chance of someone waking up/getting up and discovering them in the house? Why wouldn't they have written that note out before ever coming to the house ...on their own paper and pen? Why wouldn't a stranger/murder/child-molester not want to get away from the crime scene/house as quickly as possible? Couple that with why would they make up kidnapping for ransom lengthy note when they full well would have known that the child was dead in the basement? Would they write the note inside the house "first" ...THEN attempt to kidnap JonBenet and have that attempt go horribly wrong, leading to her death? Then there is the strange, curious wording in that note, coupled with the ransom demand amount being the exact amount of John Ramsey's bonus/raise, from his job. If this was indeed an abduction/kidnapping attempt by someone aware of the amount, why would they write such an elaborate ransom note and not take the child ...alive? How many people would know this fact of JR's raise/bonus amount? How would a stranger/murder/child-molester know this fact? On the other hand, it seems completely plausible to me that a mother ...any mother who would discover that her one child had accidentally or even purposefully killed their sibling ...just might want to try and cover up such a crime in order to "save" the remaining child. I seem to remember it being reported that Patsy's handwriting sample could not illuminate her as a potential suspect. Thoughts from the group?

 

[UKGuy]

Of all the suspicious circumstances and the total incompetence of the police investigation ...the thing that continues to boggle my mind, about this case, is the ransom note ...or I should say "ransom term paper". Why on earth would a stranger/murder/child-molester ...take your pick ...take all that time to write such a lengthy "ransom note" ...on a notepad that was already there in the victim's house ... further risking the chance of someone waking up/getting up and discovering them in the house? Why wouldn't they have written that note out before ever coming to the house ...on their own paper and pen? Why wouldn't a stranger/murder/child-molester not want to get away from the crime scene/house as quickly as possible? Couple that with why would they make up kidnapping for ransom lengthy note when they full well would have known that the child was dead in the basement? Would they write the note inside the house "first" ...THEN attempt to kidnap JonBenet and have that attempt go horribly wrong, leading to her death? Then there is the strange, curious wording in that note, coupled with the ransom demand amount being the exact amount of John Ramsey's bonus/raise, from his job. If this was indeed an abduction/kidnapping attempt by someone aware of the amount, why would they write such an elaborate ransom note and not take the child ...alive? How many people would know this fact of JR's raise/bonus amount? How would a stranger/murder/child-molester know this fact? On the other hand, it seems completely plausible to me that a mother ...any mother who would discover that her one child had accidentally or even purposefully killed their sibling ...just might want to try and cover up such a crime in order to "save" the remaining child. I seem to remember it being reported that Patsy's handwriting sample could not illuminate her as a potential suspect. Thoughts from the group?

photogbill,
That's it basically in a nutshell. Child on child assault leads to coma. Parents decide to mercy kill JonBenet and stage a kidnapping scenario, which should have nothing to do with a Sex Assault, but hey this is Ramsey country, so the kidnapper also assaulted JonBenet, oh and BTW, left her behind, duh!

Folks should do a search using their favorite search engine on JonBenet OR Burke Ramsey's "medical records", with the OR.

Where did they go, who held them, are there any left, e.g. Burke Ramsey's postmortem therapy records?

Why did BPD not issue a search warrant for them?

.

 

[Kabken]

This has always been my issue. This tells me it was family or someone close to family. A really close family friend.

 

[BoldBear]

RN questions are so far down the thread that I thought I'd ask this directly.

Were the ransom note pages ever matched up to the order they were ripped out of the notepad?

Do we really know the order the pages were written given that there were practice pages? (If page 3 was on top and the others were written 2 and 1. And I know everyone assumes 1, 2, 3.)

 

[UKGuy]

RN questions are so far down the thread that I thought I'd ask this directly.

Were the ransom note pages ever matched up to the order they were ripped out of the notepad?

Do we really know the order the pages were written given that there were practice pages? (If page 3 was on top and the others were written 2 and 1. And I know everyone assumes 1, 2, 3.)

BoldBear,
I think they did know the page order, more or less. As some pages had impressions from what had been written on a previous page.

Obviously they could just assume some pages were draft versions as they were incomplete?

.

 

[Rain on my Parade]

RN questions are so far down the thread that I thought I'd ask this directly.

Were the ransom note pages ever matched up to the order they were ripped out of the notepad?

Do we really know the order the pages were written given that there were practice pages? (If page 3 was on top and the others were written 2 and 1. And I know everyone assumes 1, 2, 3.)

BoldBear,
Here is information on the RN:
"Chet Ubowski at the CBI had pulled startling information from the tablet belonging to Patsy Ramsey. By comparing tear patterns, Ubowski had determined that the first twelve pages were missing and the next four - pages 13 through 16 - contained doodles and lists and some miscellaneous writing."

"But the next group of pages, 17 through 25, were also missing from the tablet.

The following page, 26, was the practice ransom note (Mr. and Mrs. I), and that page showed evidence of ink bleedthrough from the missing page 25."

"Comparisons of the ragged tops of the ransom note pages with the remnants left in the tablet proved that it had come from pages 27, 28, and 29."

"Furthermore, the ink bleedthrough discovered on page 26 indicated that perhaps still another practice note could have been written on page 25 and been discarded. Two possible practice notes and one real one covering three pages led me to believe that the killer had spend more time in the house composing the ransom note than we originally thought."

"But even more significant, it seemed clear that whoever wrote it was unafraid of being caught in the house. We never found the missing pages."

 

[proust20]

JR handed the notepad to BPD with the practice note inside it. With at least 20 minutes to write the RN, how much extra time for the missing pages?

 

[UKGuy]

JR handed the notepad to BPD with the practice note inside it. With at least 20 minutes to write the RN, how much extra time for the missing pages?

proust20,
Looks to me as if the missing pages are draft versions. In my line of work I create drafts regularly.

Once you have your main version you just apply stepwise refinement to the initial draft, fixing spelling, paragraphs, replacing sentences with better phrases, etc.

I'm guessing this is what all the missing ripped pages are, i.e. drafts, possibly even a different note altogether, with an alternate scenario, which was abandonded in favor of the kidnapped version.

Patsy would have excelled at this process. She would have highlighted her paragraph order, added a sentence topic, then likely asked JR what he thought?

It would probably have taken Patsy 30 minutes or possibly more to complete the ransom note, depends on the revision count and whatever JR rejected?

It's possible JR started the Ransom Note and Patsy revised and finished it?

The structure of the Ransom Note screams Patsy, she even has a header and a footer, ie. the SBTC line.

No way did JR or Burke author the note, they would not know the spelling for the French words.

So 45 minutes is a conservative minimum?

.

 

[proust20]

PR did well at college in her major of journalism. What she had to grasp was that brevity is important, Of course, the RN is far too lengthy, which immediately aroused suspicion.

The surviving practice note started as being addressed to both Rs, and not just JR. JR is designated as the person who is able to rescue JB, if the instructions are followed. Would PR single out her husband without his approval? Returning pad and pen to their usual spots was a mistake from habit. Did JR know that the practice note was inside the pad?

It's odd that intelligent, educated people would not see how inapt and inept were the ramblings of the RN. If there were several rough drafts, perhaps the wrong version were chosen finally. Actually, IMO the RN is badly written. The POV of its author is nebulous, and changes from plural to singular. It is redundant, The crossing outs and the caret indicate unsteadiness. The vocabulary is extensive; but, this works against the FF fantasy. "law enforcement countermeasures", et al. The handwriting is neat, though with nothing foreign about it. A journalist may not be capable of creating fiction.

The RN was written under extreme duress. A perfectly crafted letter is not to be expected. Still, the situation could have been more rapidly dealt with in a few lines. One wonders what the other practice notes contained. They remain as other missing puzzle pieces.

"Listen carefully!" could be JR as he dictates to PR?

 

[UKGuy]

PR did well at college in her major of journalism. What she had to grasp was that brevity is important, Of course, the RN is far too lengthy, which immediately aroused suspicion.

The surviving practice note started as being addressed to both Rs, and not just JR. JR is designated as the person who is able to rescue JB, if the instructions are followed. Would PR single out her husband without his approval? Returning pad and pen to their usual spots was a mistake from habit. Did JR know that the practice note was inside the pad?

It's odd that intelligent, educated people would not see how inapt and inept were the ramblings of the RN. If there were several rough drafts, perhaps the wrong version were chosen finally. Actually, IMO the RN is badly written. The POV of its author is nebulous, and changes from plural to singular. It is redundant, The crossing outs and the caret indicate unsteadiness. The vocabulary is extensive; but, this works against the FF fantasy. "law enforcement countermeasures", et al. The handwriting is neat, though with nothing foreign about it. A journalist may not be capable of creating fiction.

The RN was written under extreme duress. A perfectly crafted letter is not to be expected. Still, the situation could have been more rapidly dealt with in a few lines. One wonders what the other practice notes contained. They remain as other missing puzzle pieces.

"Listen carefully!" could be JR as he dictates to PR?

proust20,
Good summary. The other practise notes will contain other narratives and topics that they abandonded.

They fashioned a RN that justified and offered guided steps to follow after they dialled 911.

With JR knowing the answer to questions regarding the state of the basement tells us he was in collusion with Patsy, and indirectly with Burke.

I guess they did the best they could, which was pretty poor, as the crime-scene screams staging: Burke's long johns are either present as a diversion or an error in staging, similarly with the size-12's.

When quizzed Patsy had no answers, zilch, none! If the case was PDI surely she would have had this obvious angle covered?

The grammatical structure, the foreign terms, and its sheer length tell us no intruder breaking in at random wrote that RN.

No note was required at all, just a phone call from a toll box with a monetary sum to be delivered to some location?

It's one of those occassions where Patsy's professionalism let her down?

.

 

[proust20]

Due to the practice note(s), the latest that the writing could have begun is 5AM. The 40+ minute gap between blow and strangulation could be when the notes were being composed? This was when the 'kidnapping' was imagined?

"respect your business" and "you're not the only fat cat" do not align with a note that at least once was addressed to both Mr. and Mrs. The surviving practice note is not the version which immediately preceded the final, settled upon one? Or does the notepad evidence show that it is in fact the preceding page? By eliminating the Mrs., PR is not personally responsible for JB's rescue.

PR finding the note on the spiral staircase is a good opening for a movie. PR only glanced at the RN before the 911, against which the RN warned. Although, she rushed to the last two lines that she inverted to the operator. As she spoke, firstly, it's a "note"; then, it's a "ransom note". A deceptive order of info.

JR spread out the three pages on the floor. He read the ransom note on his knees in his underwear after showering. Before BPD arrived, he returned upstairs to dress and brought BR back to bed. In a brief bit, JR would lawyer up.